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Guest column: Rural communities need access to health care, air ambulance support

by Dan Smith
| April 15, 2020 11:49 PM

In 1995, I joined my local fire department in Grant County. What originally started out as a volunteer opportunity, being a firefighter, turned into a fulfilling, lifelong career. And now, for the last seven years, I have had the honor of serving as the county’s fire chief. Throughout my two and a half decades of experience working in Grant County, the fire department has remained dedicated to providing residents with quality service — and that is what we will continue to do. We aim to administer the fastest possible response to emergency situations. Our team has received top-notch training in practices to try and fulfill these high standards we have set for ourselves.

As our team and department continue to grow, I want to make sure we are investing in all of the best equipment and apparatus to make our fire department even stronger. However, living in a more rural region makes rapid response to emergency situations rather challenging, and emergency responders often rely on certain aid, including air ambulances.

Air medical providers give rural counties the quality services they deserve by providing immediate response to patients, medical attention on board, and transportation to the right medical center depending on a patient’s condition. Air medical providers give a last lifeline to victims that require serious medical attention.

Unfortunately, however, insurance companies do not always cover the costs of these vital services, meaning patients are often left with substantial medical bills that they were not expecting, and air medical providers’ costs are not covered, putting the base at risk. This not only results in patients not being able to afford medical bills, but air medical bases closing down, jeopardizing important care for our communities. This is not something the 95,158 residents in our county can risk losing. We need air ambulances in order to medevac victims in critical condition from accidents and fires, suffering from heart attacks, and much more. If there are fewer air providers in our region, lives could very well be at risk.

In a time when health care access is in question by many in the country, now more than ever it is critical that our lawmakers show how much they really care about health care access for all constituents, including the ones in rural areas. Being in a rural region should not mean you have less access to health care. As fire chief, I want to assure my community that they can rely on their officials to keep them safe, and I cannot do that if air medical providers are not available and supported.

As lawmakers in Washington, D.C., continue to discuss health care reform, I hope they will include the needs of rural constituents. It is time that our elected officials work to find a solution that ends surprise insurance denials for patients and secures access to air medical providers.

It should be common sense to remove patients from insurer and provider disputes and put people over profits. We are counting on Senator Murray and Senator Cantwell to be a voice for their rural constituents. I hope that our senators will continue to be champions for health care access and their rural constituents by supporting legislation that protects access to air medical providers so emergency departments like mine can focus on growing access to resources that assist rescue missions with police and ambulances. Lawmakers should feel obligated to support quality service for their constituents, and put patients’ needs over insurer profits.

Dan Smith is the chief of Grant County Fire District No. 5.